Gift for a retiring computer science professor

May 7, 2009 9:38 AM

One of my favorite professors is retiring at the end of the semester and I would like to present him with a token of my appreciation. He taught me assembly language as well as other systems classes and I thought he might appreciate a vintage 8086 processor for symbolic reasons, of course.

I would most prefer getting the original 8086 chip that Intel released in 1979, but I haven't found any on Ebay. Craigslist has also failed me, as the age of this chip and its relative performance make it rather unappealing for actual computer use.


Does the hive have any ideas where I could acquire a chip like this ? Or are there any other suggestions for gifts of this nature that may be more readily attained ?

posted by aereoperro to computers & internet (11 comments total)

Is this it?
posted by candyland at 9:49 AM on May 7 [1 favorite]

Try buying an old IBM PS/2 models 25 or 30 with an8MHz 8086
or Tandy 1000 SL-series
posted by Gungho at 10:12 AM on May 7

This professor is probably not young enough for an 8086 to be a fantastic piece of history as it would be to someone born in the 1990s. It could well be something he already has one of in a pile of junk in the attic, or else he once had one but threw it out because it was no use. If you think an 8086 is ancient and historical, are you implying that he's even more ancient and historical?

I'd go for something else unless you have a specific reason to think he collects old computer bits and is missing this one, or has some personal attachment to this particular chip.
posted by emilyw at 10:16 AM on May 7

Agree with emilyw. Chips are a bit dull and uninteresting, unless you're going to strip the package off and blow it up to poster size.

I'd suggest code memory (the wire-wrapped circular magnet stuff). It turns up occasionally on ebay and makes a great desk ornament.
posted by Leon at 10:44 AM on May 7

core memory. Damn it
posted by Leon at 10:45 AM on May 7

I bet he has more archaic hardware than he wants already. Alternative gift idea: a physical machine.

http://woodgears.ca/marbleadd/buy.html

Ping this guy, or make (or hire someone to make) a wooden binary adder.
posted by cmiller at 10:45 AM on May 7

I seen gifts that were a disc platter ( one of the old time ginormous hard drive platters) where the coworkers or students signed their names. I have even seen motherboards that were signed and mounted in a display box.
posted by shr1n1 at 11:04 AM on May 7

This professor is probably not young enough for an 8086 to be a fantastic piece of history as it would be to someone born in the 1990s. It could well be something he already has one of in a pile of junk in the attic, or else he once had one but threw it out because it was no use.

You could get the processor, a blown-up picture of the chip (or ideally, its internal design), a nice message ("8086 Processor (1978) Professor Jimbo McDoogle used processors descended from this design to teach computer science to over 500 students between 1983 and 2008, in CS213 Assembly Language, one of Harvard University's longest running and most popular classes.") and mount them all in a picture frame. Add a bit of wrapping paper, self-deprecatingly say "I thought you'd like this to hang above your toilet" and Bob's your uncle.
posted by Mike1024 at 2:06 PM on May 7

I'm nowhere near retirement age for a professor, but I'm still old enough to have seen a piece of hardware I used to use in a museum.

I looked at it and looked away, startled and shocked. Peeked again to make sure I wasn't seeing anything. Museum? History? I can't be that old! It was the single most disturbing thing I saw in that museum, this old slow chunk of hardware that to my embarrassment I actually have several of somewhere in the back of my garage where I keep my useless junk.

I sure wouldn't want one for a present. I suspect an 8086 chip falls in the same category for anyone old enough to have used them back when.

He'd probably appreciate a nice letter or card. Core memory sounds like a nice gift, but I'd include some words about what his teaching has meant to you along with it.
posted by yohko at 7:58 PM on May 7

Why did you pick the 8086 ? The 8088 was the processor in the original IBM PC and its clones (it was cheaper as it had an 8 bit bus). I would argue that the most influential Intel processor was the 8080, anyway. All of the oddball 8086 instructions grew from trying to keep some source-level compatibility with the 8080. As an aside, I still have the 8085 that I used in the home-brew computer I built while in college in the 70's (I want to keep it, though). Strangely enough, once I was employed, I never used an Intel processor again - just Motorola processors, which have much better instruction sets.
posted by rfs at 9:05 PM on May 7

I go along with the core memory idea or even a silicon die.
I have seen six inch (or so) diameter pieces for sale on eBay.

I have one in a shadowbox frame that looks pretty good on the wall.
posted by Drasher at 5:32 AM on May 8